Gold River does not normally attract many
tourists but there have been quite a few this past Summer. This is what they
hope to see; Luna, the 5-year-old lonely Orca, "playing" with a boat. This
boom boat is a fortunate choice since it's sturdily built to move bundles of
logs and is jet powered so there's no rudder for Luna to damage and no prop
to damage Luna. Other vessels have not been so lucky and small, slow
vessels, such as sailboats, are urged to avoid Nootka Sound.

For us, Gold River is a 90 minute drive, mostly
through Elk Falls and Strathcona Provincial Parks. The winding highway
skirts a number of lakes including Upper Campbell lake (left) that
feeds the Elk Falls power house and supplies drinking water to
Campbell River. We time our visits for lunch at the very good Ridge
Restaurant and Pub at the entrance to Gold River.

An unfortunate part of the landscape is this pulp
mill, the major local employer, closed in 1998. It's a monument to
management incompetence, not by Bowater who owned it at closure but by
CIP who built and managed the mill. At one time they installed a
newsprint machine and then removed and sold it because they couldn't
make it run properly. CIP did everything on the cheap and paid a heavy
price.

Industrial activity is now limited to logging,
and this dry land sort where the logs are sorted by species and size,
tied into bundles with steel cables while in the bunkers and then
formed into log booms to be towed to saw mills.

The company town remains much as it was was with
large schools, an aquatic centre and a shopping centre. However, the
population is down to a few hundred and the town is too isolated to
attract retirees to the bargain real estate.

There's a lot of vertical scenery
around Gold River but much of it is spectacular as with Nootka Sound
(above) or roadside waterfalls (right). It's also a great fishing
destination and fishing has been good this year. But watch out for Luna!